


Welcome To Underbrooke

by LinetteSQMills



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), swan queen - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Friendship, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-28 15:19:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6334114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LinetteSQMills/pseuds/LinetteSQMills
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Inspired by the 5x15 promo)</p><p>Regina, concerned for Emma, follows her into the room where Cora used to send people to hell. She finds Emma sitting alone and upset about something. Not really knowing what else to do, she sits next to Emma and tries her best to offer comfort. Other things come to light as Regina finally works up the nerve to ask Emma why she chose to take on the darkness for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Emma..." Regina walked up to where the blonde sat, quite literally on the brink of death. She couldn't shake the memory of her mother condemning a man to hell in this exact spot, but luckily she could call on the memory of her father moving on to a better place to balance it out. 

Emma glanced over her shoulder and let out a long sigh before tossing a pebble into the fire below. "He found Liam." 

Regina sat next to Emma carefully, clearly uneasy with their casual use of this cave. "And?" It took a moment for Emma's somber tone to register. Something was wrong. All at once she understood. "He doesn't like you... Does he?" 

"He thinks I'm not good enough for Hook." Emma moved away from the edge, sitting cross legged and turning to facing Regina. She looked down, unable to make eye contact.

Regina became visibly annoyed, as if this was a personal offense. "You're the savior, for god's sake. You're the pinnacle of good, not to mention good *enough*. I shudder to think what it must have been like to date when they were alive, with Liam's standards." 

Emma looked up finally, into Regina's eyes. "Well now they're dead. And I came here thinking I could change that." She crossed her arms, shielding herself from her emotions. 

Regina recognized this as a classic Emma move. She too turned away from the edge, sitting with both legs to one side facing Emma, and met her gaze. "And now you're realizing you can't."

Emma shook her head, as if trying to shake the notion from her mind, and didn't even take a breath before responding. "And more than that, I dragged everyone I care about down here for nothing. And now we can't even get home." 

Regina tried to find comforting words, knowing everything Emma said was true. "We'll find our way out of this, when have we not? We make a great team, Emma. Your parents too. We'll figure it out. And you didn't drag anyone here. We're your family. How could we have let you come here alone?" 

"That's what I mean. I had to have known that you'd follow me here. Especially you. You feel responsible." 

Regina wracked her brain, trying very hard to understand what part of this she was responsible for. Before she could ask what Emma meant, the blonde continued. "You blame yourself for me becoming the dark one, because I did it to save you. You feel responsible to get us all out of this mess. But I chose to save you. I chose most of the things happening right now. so it's on me." Emma looked over the ledge, at the dancing flames waiting to consume their next victim. This truly was the worst thing they'd ever gotten themselves into. 

Regina looked at Emma, trying her best to read her. She decided this was a good time to finally ask what had been on her mind for months. "Emma, why did you choose to take on the purest form of evil when you didn't have to?" She looked towards the exit to their left, trying to appear casual and wondering when someone would come looking for them. 

"Because I'm the savior. I thought maybe I'd have some level of immunity to the darkness, and that I could fight it off for as long as it would take you and my parents to get it out of me. But if it had consumed you, it would have played on every bit of the darkness and anger in your past. Who knows what would have happened to you, to everyone. More importantly, you worked too hard and too long to have it all go to shit. You didn't deserve one more outside force telling you who to be. You've gotten enough of that to last a few lifetimes. To make it simple, you're my best friend. I wasn't going to stand by and watch it destroy you." 

Regina was in awe. She knew Emma would have some sort of logical explanation for her decision, but she never expected that. Before she got a chance to respond, Snow and Charming walked in. Snow piped up first, directing her attention to Emma. "What are you both doing here? I thought you were going to find out more about Hades while Regina worked on strengthening her underworld magic." 

Emma snapped out of the moment and answered her mother a little too abruptly. "We were. I came here to think and Regina followed to make sure I was okay. I'm going to do that now. Dad, come with me?" Charming nodded, and Emma walked towards him before turning back to share a look with Regina that they both knew meant they'd resume this conversation later. As Emma reached Charming, he put a hand on her back and guided her out. Snow waited until they were both out of sight before letting out a giggle. 

Regina looked over at Snow as if she'd gone mad. "What could possibly be funny here?" She gestured around to the desolate wasteland they stood on, sure that Snow had lost it if she was capable of finding humor in their current predicament. 

"You." Snow grabbed Regina's hand and gripped it between her own. "Me. I'm funny. How's that?" Regina's eyes kept darting between Snow's face and her hand in Snow's. Regina was all for a heartfelt moment with her, God knows they'd already had a few. She just couldn't for the life of her understand how this was an appropriate moment for it. 

Snow stared into Regina's eyes dead on, giving her an obvious look, as if it was Regina who should be catching on. "You'd send her and the son you share off to New York with no memory of ever having known you in order to save her life. You'd sacrifice yourself to save her from a chernabog when you thought it wanted you. You'd follow her to the depths of the underworld. But if your life depended on it Regina, you still wouldn't admit that you're in love with her."


	2. Chapter 2

Regina's eyes went wide and she pulled her hand away from Snow's, albeit a lot more forcefully than she intended to. Attempting to play it cool, she ran the hand through her hair and cleared her throat. "Snow, you know these talks with you are great, really, I love them" Regina began, a twinge of sarcasm in her voice, even though they both knew she meant it. "But, I think being down here has really gotten to you becuase I have no idea what on earth you're talking about." She nodded slightly, conveying that she had this all figured out and that Snow was clearly not thinking straight. Snow just laughed again, this time louder. 

"Regina, this is really a sight. I've never seen you flustered before. It's not very regal behavior, if you ask me." Regina cocked an eyebrow, now truly collected. "Well, I didn't ask you, now did I? I mean really, we have bigger things to worry about right now. I can't believe you're making up these theories when we are quite literally going through hell." She stared right into Snow's eyes, not showing a single readable emotion; at least, not to an untrained eye. 

Snow smiled softly and sat on a nearby stone, looking into the pit with a far off look. When she finally seemed to be in the present moment again, she focused her gaze back to Regina. "Do you remember when I was sixteen?" This question proved hypothetical, as Regina wasn't given a moment to respond. "There was a ball we hosted every year, me, you and my father. But the year I turned sixteen, my father planned for the ball to be a celebration of me. We were escorted to the beautiful ballroom, and everyone rushed over to greet us. People were there that I didn't even know. They kept asking you about my father, and you told them the same thing over and over again. 'The king is very kind, he's a wonderful father. I love him. I'm happy.' You said it like you'd rehearsed it. See, I didn't know many people there, so I watched you instead. You said those things with sincerity, but they were always accompanied with a twitch of your right hand, followed by you grasping it with your left to steady it." 

Slightly disturbed with Snow's attention to detail as well as uncomfortable with the subject of Leopold being brought up, Regina turned to look at Snow. "So you've been stalking me since you were a kid, so what?" Snow rolled her eyes and walked back over to Regina, grasping her hand more firmly than before. "You do the same thing when you lie about your feelings for Emma." Regina swallowed hard and attempted to free her hand once more, but to no avail. "Regina, listen to me please. I am not mad at you for how you feel." She felt Regina fighting her words, not daring to believe them. Her eyes focused on anything but the situation. But she didn't try to pull away again, so Snow continued. "David wouldn't be either. We wouldn't love you any less if you told the truth. We wouldn't be appalled that you love our daughter. Don't you think I've ever thought about it? About what it would mean if the happy ending I once took from you was given back by the one thing I love most? Don't you think I want you to be happy? I ruined that the first time around. You don't have to feel ashamed for wanting it back. You've more than made your ammends." 

Regina quickly focused her eyes on Snow, quickly and with purpose, as though ripping off a bandaid. "You don't understand. Even if you're telling the truth, Emma does not feel the same way about me. She's in hell trying to save the man she loves. Look where we are." Snow didn't skip a beat. "I am telling the truth and I know where we are and why we are here. I'm caught up on the situation. But isn't it extremely unfair to say Emma doesn't feel the same way, when you've yet to let her know you were ever an option? There was a time that I worried about your relationship with her. Years ago, when she first came to town. Once the curse broke and we all knew who we were, Emma was always so quick to jump to your defense. Granted, she was usually right. But she never wavered in her trust for you. Trust that I never understood giving how well I thought I knew you. I thought she was just naive. But it didn't fit with her narrative. The Emma I met was so strong and hard headed. She'd be the last person to look like a fool defending someone everyone knew was evil. Unless there was a reason. I saw something then. There was a spark. And at the time, I wanted nothing more than to get her and Henry away from you. By the time you had fought to redeem yourself, Hook had come into Emma's life." Regina could recall Emma fighting for her. In fact, she replayed it in her mind as often as possible because it was the first time someone truly believed in her. "If she really felt that way about me, why did she let it go so easily? Why do I think about her constantly five years later and she's just fine to move on? It clearly wasn't meant to be." 

Regina realized she'd now confirmed Snow's suspicions. The time for denying it was long gone. But it didn't matter, because so was any chance of being with Emma. 

The raging fires below them began to bubble up to the surface of the pit, the same way they had the night Cora damned someone to hell right in front of Regina. "Snow, I think my mother's coming. We'll have to find a better place for this. Go. Now." 

"Emma? Are you in here?" Regina looked around UnderGranny's solemnly before spotting the blonde looking back at her from the bar. She steadied her pace and looked ahead as she walked over to Emma. 

"You know, the last time we sat here like this, you didn't make me talk about losing Robin. You just sat next to me and ordered us shots." Regina smiled softly. "Are you trying to do the same now?" Emma smiled back, as sincerely as she could considering. 

Regina lifted an eyebrow and put up two fingers to signal the waitress to bring two shots of tequila. "Have you met me? No, dear. I'm definitely going to make you talk about this. But we can have shots."


End file.
